A: Could you explain more on how the experiment was done?

B: I have strayed off course from the lecture, so let us return to our muttons before we run out of time.

Note: The English saying is a direct translation from the French, whose figurative meaning is “to return to the subject under discussion or consideration.” The origin goes back to a 16th century play “Pierre Pathelin.” Pathelin is a lawyer who hoodwinked Joceaume, the local draper, into giving him six ells of cloth. Then, Joceaume also discovered that his shepherd had stolen his sheep. He has the shepherd haled before the magistrate and there finds that the shepherd’s lawyer is Pathelin. The draper tries to tell the magistrate about his loss of the sheep, but each time he sees Pathelin he begins to talk about the cloth. Therefore, the judge asks him to “return to the muttons (sheep).”